The year 1776 was memorable in the annals of Kentucky, as that in which General George Rogers Clark first visited it, unconscious, it may be, of the imperishable honors which the western country would one day reserve for him.  This same year Captain Wagin arrived in the country, and fixed in a solitary cabin on Hinkston’s Fork of the Licking.

In the autumn of this year, most of the recent immigrants to Kentucky returned to the old settlements, principally in Virginia.  They carried with them strong representations, touching the fertility and advantages of their new residence; and communicated the impulse of their hopes and fears extensively among their fellow-citizens by sympathy.

The importance of the new settlement was already deemed to be such, that on the meeting of the legislature of Virginia, the governor recommended that the south-western part of the county of Fincastle—­so this vast tract of country west of the Alleghanies had hitherto been considered—­should be erected into a separate county by the name of Kentucky.

This must be considered an important era in the history of the country.  The new county became entitled to two representatives in the legislature of Virginia, to a court and judge; in a word, to all the customary civil, military, and judicial officers of a new county.  In the year 1777, the county was duly organized, according to the act of the Virginia legislature.  Among the names of the first officers in the new county, we recognize those of Floyd, Bowman, Logan, and Todd.

Harrodsburgh, the strongest and most populous station in the country, had not hitherto been assailed by the Indians.  Early in the spring of 1777, they attacked a small body of improvers marching to Harrodsburgh, about four miles from that place.  Mr. Kay, afterwards General Kay, and his brother were of the party.  The latter was killed, and another man made prisoner.  The fortunate escape of James Kay, then fifteen years old, was the probable cause of the saving of Harrodsburgh from destruction.  Flying from the scene of attack and the death of his brother, he reached the station and gave the inhabitants information, that a large body of Indians was marching to attack the place.  The Indians themselves, aware that the inhabitants had been premonished of their approach, seem to have been disheartened; for they did not reach the station till the next day.  Of course, it had been put in the best possible state of defence, and prepared for their reception.

The town was now invested by the savage force, and something like a regular siege commenced.  A brisk firing ensued.  In the course of the day the Indians left one of their dead to fall into the hands of the besieged—­a rare occurrence, as it is one of their most invariable customs to remove their wounded and dead from the possession of the enemy.  The besieged had four men wounded and one of them mortally.  The Indians, unacquainted with the mode of conducting a siege, and little accustomed to open and fair fight, and dispirited by the vigorous reception given them by the station, soon decamped, and dispersed in the forests to supply themselves with provisions by hunting.